It is common in the US to view France as a fading nation. Last week’s carnage in Paris has reminded Americans what they value in their oldest ally. France may suffer from steep unemployment and a sclerotic public sector. It remains an à la carte ally of the US, rather than adopting a British-style prix fixe. But its effective handling of the attack on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo — and the symbolic nature of the target — has invoked something in America’s DNA. “Solidarité” is the cover of the New Yorker against a cartoon of the Eiffel Tower as a pencil — an artful echo of Le Monde’s “We are all Americans” post-9/11 headline. The slogan, “Je Suis Charlie”, may be overblown. But this tragedy has brought out America’s underlying sympathy for France. The more is the pity that no senior US official was able to attend Sunday’s unity demonstration in Paris.
Though recent, the neoconservative view of France as a nation of “cheese eating surrender monkeys” is now a memory. Yet the lessons of the Iraq invasion look ever more relevant. In 2003, many Americans saw France as a weak-kneed appeaser of Third World dictators — Saddam Hussein being the latest. Some of it was true. The French have few scruples in dealing with thuggish regimes when there is profit to be made. But France — and Germany — stood against the Iraq invasion on principle and substance. With hindsight they were prescient. History will treat Jacques Chirac more kindly than Tony Blair. Besides, the US and the UK have histories of arming their own strongmen — at one time that included Saddam. Whether you view the fight against Islamist fascism as a war, or as an international police operation, the French are doing some things right.
Last week’s horror reminds us that Enlightenment values are universal — and France remains one of its strongest cradles. Some commentators have pointedest to Charlie Hebdo’ gratuitous lack of taste. The magazine has been relentlessly provocative, they say. It is a fair critique. Hebdo has made its name through insulting people of all faiths, Muslims among them. But the critique confuses defence of free speech with its content. Voltaire said: “I do not agree with what you have to say but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” The philosopher is said to have made those remarks in 1766 after the French state had executed a baron for blasphemy — the offender having defiled a crucifix and spat on religious imagery. The philosopher’s worldview prevailed. Today, such material is likelier to be on exhibit at a Parisian art gallery. No one is required to like Hebdo. We are all Voltairians now.
France has stuck more rigidly to secularism than its cousins in the US. Depictions of Jesus are as unwelcome in the French classroom as the Islamic veil. Some Muslim feminists argue this is counter-productive — wearing the chador emboldens girls from conservative families to go out into the world. Yet France enforces the principle even-handedly. In parts of the US, such as Texas, the curriculum teaches that the Christian God is the author of American liberty. It is a long way from what most of the founding fathers believed. Many, including Thomas Jefferson, the most Francophile of America’s revolutionaries, were Deists — they believed God originally made the universe but did not interfere in its workings. It was as close to atheism as the age permitted.
Today, few US politicians would dare admit to Godlessness, or even agnosticism. According to Pew, just 2.4 per cent of Americans identify as atheist. Yet faith is only selectively rewarded in the US. Muslim unbelievers are celebrated with plenty of airtime.
Nor is France vacillating in its response to the Islamist threat. With mixed results it spearheaded the war against Muammer Gaddafi’s Libya — President Barack Obama was content to lead that from behind. It has taken the initiative to fight the Islamist insurgency in Mali. It is the most sceptical among the EU three in its view of Iran’s nuclear ambitions — Britain and Germany are less hardline.
There are plenty of doubters in the English-speaking world. They point to French readiness to pay off al-Qaeda-linked hostage-takers in north Africa and elsewhere. They are alarmed by rising anti-Semitism — a record number of French Jews are moving to Israel. Moreover, France’s 5m Muslims are among the least integrated in Europe. Marine Le Pen’s far right Front National will doubtless gain support after last week’s horrors. Whatever backlash occurs will encourage yet more French Muslims to join the Islamic State’s insurgency in Syria and Iraq, another dubious league table that France tops.
But these are dangers France and the US have in common. With obvious reluctance, but little option, Mr Obama has assembled another ad hoc coalition to “degrade and ultimately destroy” the latest threat from the Middle East. This time France is a willing partner alongside the UK. Two of the Hebdo terrorists were trained by al-Qaeda in Yemen. Others will have learnt new methods from Isis. It is probably only a matter of time before one of the groups tries another attack on the US homeland. Today, as in the late 18th century, France and the US are peas in a pod. Each sees itself as exceptional. But what they have in common transcends national vanities. When France and the US see eye-to-eye their histories sometimes rhyme.
美國人普遍把法國視爲一個衰落中的國家。上週巴黎發生的屠殺讓美國人回想起，他們對最長久的盟友法國看重的是什麼。法國可能正受困於高失業率和僵化的公共行業。法國仍是美國的一個照單點菜式的盟友（而非英國那樣的鐵桿拍檔）。但是，諷刺雜誌《查理週刊》(Charlie Hebdo) 遇襲後法國的高效處理——以及被攻擊目標具有的象徵意義——喚醒了美國人基因中的某些東西。最新一期《紐約客》(New Yorker)封面的主題是“團結”，背景是製成埃菲爾鐵塔(Eiffel Tower)卡通形象的一枝鉛筆——巧妙呼應了法國《世界報》(Le Monde)在9/11事件之後“我們都是美國人”的標題。“我是查理”(Je suis Charlie)的標語可能有些過頭了。但這場悲劇引出了美國對法國的根本同情。在這一背景下，沒有一位美國高官能夠參加週日在巴黎舉行的團結遊行更加令人遺憾。
英語世界中有一些質疑者，他們指出法國準備爲北非等地發生的、與基地組織有關的人質劫持事件支付贖金。反猶太主義升溫引起他們的擔憂——遷居以色列的法國猶太人人數創下紀錄。此外，法國的500萬穆斯林融入主流社會的程度是歐洲最低的。在上週的慘案發生後，馬琳•勒龐(Marine Le Pen)領導的極右翼黨派國民陣線(National Front)無疑將獲得支持。無論產生什麼反彈，都將刺激更多法國穆斯林加入敘利亞和伊拉克的“伊斯蘭國”(Islamic State)動亂，這是法國領銜的另一個不好的排行榜。
